Abuse

The theme of abuse is an obvious and important theme of this autobiography. Child abuse was the theme of Dave Pelzer's life between the ages of four and twelve, the time period over which this book covers. There are many types of abuse that can damage a child's delicate psyche and most of them are covered in this book. The first is verbal abuse. Many people do not realize how deeply words can wound a child. However, language can be as damaging to a child as a fist. The very title of this book, A Child Called It, is a perfect example of verbal abuse. Dave's mother reduced her child, a son she gave birth to, down to nothing. Dave's mother refused to acknowledge Dave as a member of the family for many years and refused to call him anything but 'The Boy.' As the abuse escalated...